Delivered in 1896 by the artist to Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905) for Élisabeth, Countess Greffulhe (1860-1952), Paris George Wildenstein (1892-1963), Paris Confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg following the Nazi occupation of Paris, after May 1940 (No. W161) Transferred to Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany, 15 January 1943 Returned to France, 13 November 1945, and restituted to George Wildenstein, 21 March 1947 With Wildenstein, New York Florence Gould (1895-1983), New York Her sale; Sotheby’s, New York, 24-25 April 1985, lot 12 Nomura & Co., Kyoto Lecien Corporation, Kyoto With Daniel Varenne, Geneva, 2003 Private collection, Switzerland Their sale, Christie’s, London, 21 November 2012, lot 14 Private collection, United States
Exhibitions
Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Chefs-d'Oeuvre de la collection Florence Gould, 1985
Zürich, Kunsthaus, Gustave Moreau Symboliste, 14 March - 25 May 1986, no. 139
Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, Gustave Moreau, 21 March - 14 May 1995, no. 97
Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, 23 May - 9 July 1995
New York, David Zwirner, Endless Enigma, 12 September - 27 October 2018
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Femme Fatale: Gaze – Power - Gender, 9 December 2022 - 10 April 2023
Literature
Robert de Montesquiou, Préface, in: exh. cat. Un peintre lapidaire. Gustave Moreau, Paris, 1906, p. 27 Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Sa vie, son oeuvre, Fribourg, 1976, no. 425 Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau: Complete edition of the finished paintings, watercolours and drawings, Oxford, 1977, no. 425 Pierre-Louis Mathieu, “Gustave Moreau et le mythe d'Hélène”, in: Gazette des Beaux-Arts, September 1985, pp. 76-80 Pierre-Louis Mathieu, Gustave Moreau. Monographie et Nouveau catalogue de l'oeuvre achevé, Courbevoie (Paris), 1998, pp. 123 & 421, no. 462 Gustave Moreau, exh.cat. Grand Palais, Paris, 1998, p. 204 Gustave Moreau, Between Epic and Dream, exh.cat. Art Institute, Chicago & Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Princeton, 1999, p. 227 Natasha Grigorian, European Symbolism: In search of Myth (1860-1910), Oxford/New York, 2009, pp. 52, 60-62 Marie-Cécile Forest & Pierre Pinchon, Gustave Moreau: Hélène de Troie. La beauté en majesté, exh.cat. Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris, Lyon, 2012, pp. 94-95